Koban (85 page)

****

The bright lights disturbed Telror, interfering with her night
vision. However, the light and noise had first drawn her and her hunting companion
to walk the side of the cliff that protected the red prey’s territory.

When they scented a scorched smell of burned grass, they carefully
approached a place where the deadly thin gray vines grew. These odd vines protected
the red prey’s normally closed opening into their small territory, and the top of
the stone-like cliff that surrounded their private hunting ground. The red prey
rarely came out by making a hole in the cliff, preferring to ride inside the flying
not-live thing that served them, and passing over the strange cliff and dangerous
vines.

The pride knew the killer vines were actually not-live, but here
the thin straight strands that could kill with a touch were broken and torn, lying
on the ground. Some were still hanging from the bare skinny gray trees that held
them up and pulled them straight, guarding the place where the cliff could open.

Sometimes hunters from her pride found dead prey animals near
the vines, the animals having carelessly touched the vines and died in a violent
death spasm that came with the smallest of touches. If the prey was fresh killed,
and careful inspection showed the dead animal did not still touch the vines, hunters
from her pride had learned it was safe to drag the prey away to eat.

However, the vines somehow could hurt or kill even through the
body of dead prey, if the animal died while still touching any part of a vine.

With a thrill of excitement, they saw that even the opening through
the cliff of the red prey’s territory was torn apart. The grey vines on the ground
were all that kept them from passing into the unexplored virgin territory.

Rasha, Telror’s cousin, pressed her neck frill to her sibling’s
haunches, and sent the pictogram image of pushing a small prey onto the vines to
see if they remained deadly, or not.

Telror sent back the answering image of them hunting, and they
swiftly split up to backtrack to a scent they had passed of a trail of small fast
prey they normally would not waste the energy to hunt.

Working together, Telror quickly chased a half dozen of the fast
little bounding and darting creatures towards where her cousin waited in ambush.
Rasha swiftly leaped up and caught one in midair with her fierce jaws as it tried
to jump over the bushes where she had lain in wait. She was careful to be gentle.

The pitiful squeals of the struggling animal nearly pushed Rasha
into the ecstasy of the kill, but she withheld that pleasure in order to test the
vines, as she had proposed.

As they glided swiftly back to the cliff opening, Telror grazed
her cousin with her own frill. When Rasha held out the beating and kicking animal
in her powerful jaws, Telror broke the small gazelle-like animal’s two back legs
with a little nip to the lower part of each.

Like her cousin, as the animal screamed in pain it sharply increased
her urge to sense the delight of the kill. The desire was powerful but their test
of the vines came first, so she settled for a gentle stroke of her frill to sense
the prey’s delectable pain and terror.

Walking close to the gray strands, using a casual toss of her
head Rasha opened her jaws to let the squalling animal fall in the center of a tangle
of the deadly vines.

The two watched with interest as the pitiful crippled creature
bleated and struggled to flee, flopping across the vines, touching multiple strands
without effect. Desperately pulling itself by its front legs, it managed to stumble
into one of the odd thin grey trees that held the vines above the ground, and it
still did not spasm and die.

Briefly brushing frills first, Telror watched with envy as Rasha
pounced on the little mouthful, her jaws and fangs crushing and tearing its life
out instantly. She savored the pleasure that was all the greater for the delay and
anticipation of its death, the warmth of the life fluids sweet on her tongue. As
agreed when they had touched frills, she offered none of the small morsel to her
cousin because it was Rasha’s idea to prove the not-live vines were dead.

Now they had the excitement of hunting on new territory, anticipated
for longer than the age of the oldest living pride member. Boltar was the elder
male of the pride, and even his memories of frill images from past elders held no
knowledge of what was inside the red prey’s territory.

They knew the red prey had partly abandoned their territory,
because their scent and sounds had diminished over time. They sometimes returned
in the flying not-life thing and came out to hunt on the pride’s territory. It was
difficult to sneak up on them, and they had a dangerous stinging stick that made
noise that could hurt or cripple. Nevertheless, they were thrilling to hunt, even
if not very meaty.

The red ones respected the skill and strength of the pride’s
hunters because they avoided them, and ran to their not-live flying thing to escape
when the pride came for them. If they caught one before it could escape, it fought
wildly with desperation. In truth, they were hard to kill, and used not-live things
like long shiny fangs to bite and cut, as well as their own small sharp teeth and
short talons.

The red prey were dangerous when they used their stinging sticks
that hurt at a distance, but the hunters had learned to anticipate and avoid the
sting when they saw a flash on a stick pointed at them. There were small and long
sticks, not-live things they always carried with them. Without those to help, they
could not stop even a lone female from tearing out their living organs. With the
sticks, they sometimes killed a pride member, but they had
never
been allowed
to keep the kill.

The frill touch at a kill of any red one invariably revealed
its mind to be full of rage and hatred of the pride. However, there was also admiration
mixed with a fear of their attackers. This sensation from their mind was far more
delicious than the actual eating of their flesh. After such a kill, the lucky hunter
shared the experience through frill contacts with the rest of the pride.

The frills also told the pride that the red prey wanted to be
the greatest of all predators, the ultimate killers. Each one that had died under
the pride’s fangs and claws had wanted to experience the joy of killing a member
of the pride without the stinging sticks to help. It had never happened.

Now the pride could hunt them in their own territory. The two
cousins crept into the enclosure with the greatest stealth possible of their kind.
It was near the end of the day, not their favorite time to hunt, but the red ones
did not see quite as well as rippers did in darkness. They carefully prowled towards
where they heard the sounds come down from the sky, watching large not-life things
land. They soon picked up the scent of another prey. A lot of them.

A touch for coordination and Rasha, the faster cousin, departed
swiftly to seek more members of the spread out pride scouts. This prey was rare
but known to them, because it sometimes came out with the red ones. It was smaller
and slower than the red prey, easy to catch and kill even when they had stinging
sticks. There were so many here that the pride would bring home much meat for the
cubs tonight.

In the dusk and long shadows, Telror crept close to the huge
den carefully and slowly, keeping a burned dead flying thing between her and the
den. She hid under its broken body and watched as activity appeared around a larger
flying thing. It radiated heat and had a strange smell like the dead flyer did,
but stronger and fresh. She decided it was a flyer she and Rasha had seen and heard
come down from the sky.

New limbs descended from the not-live thing, and moving not-live
things that the red ones sometimes used outside their territory came from their
den. However, the riders were not red ones, and the prey that came out of the large
flying thing was not either. With a sense of elation, she recognized them from thought
pictures shared by her pride. These were the smaller prey that the red ones sometimes
brought with them to hunt the giant horned ones.

Rasha should be returning with others of the pride soon, and
because of their careful scouting as they arrived they wouldn’t need to proceed
slow now that it was certain all of the prey were close to the big den. These were
only the slow and less dangerous small animals, easily killed without great risk.

****

“Sir, I am detecting at least six heat signatures of animals
of the size of the two I previously detected. These are also leaving the woods to
the north and approaching the edges of the marsh, where I lost view of the other
two.”

“Tell this to Ms. Willfem and the Pink Nebula.”

“In progress, Sir.”

“Of course, silly of me.” Jake could simultaneously hold multiple
conversations.

“Are these moving with the same slow caution?” He asked.

“No Sir. Like the one I reported leaving just at sunset, they
are moving at about thirty-three miles per hour south towards the north side of
the dome, and are just over twelve miles away. If they skirt the marsh they could
reach the dome in twenty five minutes, less time if they can move even faster or
they pass through parts of the marsh.”

“Damn, that’s pretty fast and seems threatening. Put the Infrared
and night vision images overlaid on the big screen. Do you have a better size estimate
now, or a guess as to what they are?”

The main screen lit with the ghostly images of trees rocks and
shrubs using amplified night vision and moon light. Then the infrared images were
overlaid. Scale was hard to estimate, but yellow and red blobs could be seen moving
past tree shapes as the two synchronized cameras tracked the movement of six heat
sources moving right at them.

“The size of five of the animals, based on their average speed
and the time it takes the image to move past fixed trees indicates an average body
length of seven to eight feet. The slightly larger heat source is over nine feet
in body length, and. I have compared them to the images of the antelope Ms. Jorl’sn
named blue streakers, and these animals are lower to the ground, with thicker legs
and less body length. Based on the mass of the antelope, these would probably weigh
six hundred to eight hundred pounds on Earth and fifty percent more here on Koban.”

“Can you zoom the infrared image on the larger animal? We might
see more detail.”

The single red and yellow image filled the screen, a bit jumpy
as the camera tried to keep it centered. It was coming almost head on most of the
time, making it possible only to see there were four legs below a massive body,
low to the ground. Suddenly the image went off screen to the left as it turned away
from a low line of cooler rocks. The camera locked on again, presenting a side view.

The motion was graceful and sinuous, with a large head on a short
neck connected to a longer body on legs clearly shorter and heavier than an antelope.
It was loping in a ground-covering gait. A wavering yellow line behind the compact
body revealed a long thin tail twitching as it dodged around trees and rocks in
darkness.

Maggi studied their agility and fast smooth movements. “They
have to have excellent night vision to keep up that speed.”

Noreen voiced what Mirikami and Maggi were thinking. “That’s
a predator. All of the grazing animals of that size have longer slender legs for
high-speed running, and I don’t see any horns. Thad says all of the herbivores anyone
has seen here had various types of horns for defense.”

“I think you’re right,” Mirikami agreed. “And we were told that
rippers hunt in prides of that size or larger. The image Jake reported leaving at
the same speed an hour ago may have gone to bring back the pride. We need to close
hatches and bring in all of the trucks. We can’t continue the transfers in the dark
with those closing in on us.”

“Jake, Link to all, use our external speakers and the frequencies
for the eight ships on the ground.”

“Ready, Sir.”

“This is Captain Mirikami. We have detected what we think are
six predators coming in from the north, running towards the dome at approximately
thirty miles an hour. These may be what are called rippers, which are the equivalent
of large earth cats such as lions or tigers, but larger, stronger and faster. Get
back inside the ships or into the dome as soon as possible. You have only about
fifteen minutes on the north side but don’t delay; they can run even faster that
they are now. Not even the Krall willingly face these killers, even when heavily
armed. Mirikami Out.”

The two trucks at the base of the Pink Nebulae, fully loaded,
started for the dome’s north entrance. Everyone gathered at the base of the boarding
ramp had heard the speaker warning to get back aboard. They were now crowding to
get onto the up escalator side of the personnel ramp. No one thought to stop and
reverse the down side escalator, so at least twenty people were still descending.

Willfem was standing out on the tarmac with the Nebula’s Captain
Johnfem. She had relayed the message to get everyone back into the ship, even though
the echoing speaker announcement had been understandable. They would easily have
everyone back inside in less than ten minutes, and the just departed trucks would
be able to drive right into the dome in far less time than that. She watched as
several outbound trucks turned back.

She and the ship’s Captain would be the last ones up the ramp,
and the twenty people still coming down had to switch sides at the bottom. Therefore,
she drew both pistols, swapped out the two buckshot clips with heavier rounds and
handed one to Johnfem. A brief explanation of the safety and the simple firing mechanism
was all that was needed. The Captain pocketed her own Jazzer she had carried outside
for skeeter protection.